December mortgage approvals up 29% year on year

A new report shows that a total of 1,446 mortgages - worth €234m - were approved by lenders here during December.

The Irish Banking Federation says this represents a volume increase of 29.6% and a value increase of 29.3% over the same month last year.

The IBF says that 92% of the mortgage approvals were for property purchase, which itself showed a year on year increase of 40%.

''As the IBF Mortgage Approvals Report is a lead indicator of future mortgage market activity, we expect this evidence of renewed activity to be reflected in the actual mortgage drawdown figures for the fourth quarter of 2012 when the IBF/PwC Mortgage Market profile is published in February,'' commented the IBF's Director of Public Affairs, Felix O'Regan.